Category Archives: karate fighting

Outlaw Karate Gets a Face Lift!

‘Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt,’ was one of the first books on Matrixing. Actually, it was written before matrixing became ‘officialize.’

This is the first book to put forth the concept that people could actually earn a real Black Belt in Karate in a year of less.

This new edition includes a glossy cover. The original material, five star rated on Amazon, is intact.

The glory of this book is that it goes belt by belt, describing all the experiences, detailing what the student should be going through, and showing all the forms and applications. Thus, the reader has a much better chance of getting through the material without error; it is actually possible to get to a Black Belt within one year.

The book is based on the author’s synthesis of two martial arts, ‘Kang Duk Won’ and ‘Kwon Bup.’ All duplicate material has been discarded, along with fluff material such as poser techniques, unworkable techniques, and so on.

The result is an extremely hard core, street workable system.

The book includes detailed instructions on such items as:

how to create power

six ways to translate a block into totally different techniques

promotional requirements for every belt

what a student goes through on each belt level and why

the actual written tests for each belt

and TONS more.

The book is 166 pages with 212 images. In includes the complete system, with all the forms, applications, and methods of freestyle.

To find out more about Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt, click on this cover…

Click on the cover to go to Amazon and find out more…

This book is a complete system. It includes all the forms and form applications, along with methods of freestyle.

A Martial Arts Dirty Word!

Happy New Year! And a dirty word to you. A dirty word? But…which dirty word?

The word is… ATARAXIA.

I will explain why it is a dirty word later. Right now, let me say that, dirty or not, it is the one word you should know, especially if you wish to be a real martial artist.

I do want to warn you, that if you’re not prepared for a little concentration, a bit of hard thought, and the willingness to look your face right in the mirror, you better skip this newsletter.

Here we go.

Ataraxia is derived from Greek. it means… ‘not disturbed.’ It is freedom from distress and worry.

Or, A state of serene calmness.

This is not just a philosophical word. Philosophy, as in dry old men who sit around and talk about life.

This is freedom from worrying about whether some fellow is going to attack you, whether your car is going to make it to work, or even where your next meal is coming from. Heck, it is even freedom from the fellows in Washington, who do their best to disturb any tranquil state of the soul.

And here’s the real definition.

Ataraxia is an untroubled and tranquil condition of the soul… THE IDEAL STATE FOR SOLDIERS ENTERING BATTLE! (Caps mine.)

But, we have just scratched the surface of the word.

Dig in a little deeper and we have… ‘live life modestly, gain a knowledge of the world, and limit one’s desires.’

Yikes! That means you don’t need a Ferrari, a cheap junker will do, if it will get you from here to there, which is the point of it all.

If you live modestly and seek knowledge, you will become free from fear… you will be happy.

But, it gets even juicier. A person who takes no position as to what is good or bad attains a state of ataraxia. Good or bad, you see, is a judgment. A person who judges others has removed himself from humanity.

And, yet more. A person who pursues virtue will achieve ataraxia.

So, to become a warrior, a real warrior, possessed of virtues and honor, you have to give up desires, you have to stop judging others, then you can become balanced, and that balance will manifest as a peaceful state of the soul.

Now do you understand why this simple word is so important? Do you understand why a year spent delving into it will result in yourself as a higher caliber martial artist?

And, of course, a few work outs a day. Work outs like in Monkey Boxing. Every week you get more data, old training drills that are now forgotten. New training drills to fill in the pieces. And an inspiration to work out. To not stop. To explore the martial arts to delve into what makes you you.

Think about it like this, think about this different way of looking at things: if something bad happens, you don’t get upset or emotional, for it has already happened. You don’t react, but merely move to calm the situation.

And, if you can do this, then you start to see ‘disturbances’ coming, and you start to act BEFORE the deed, thus preventing a disturbance to your ataraxia, and helping others to achieve this ideal state of spirituality.

That’s how it all works.

So why is Ataraxia a dirty word?

Because saying ‘dirty word’ makes people look. I got you to look. Hopefully, you will forgive my terrible deed, and consider a life filled with ataraxia.

And here’s something really sneaky about this, if i can inject a final word.

You saw the term ‘dirty word,’ your mind reacted, and you were compelled. Not very ataraxic, eh?

And the solution is to pursue ataraxia if you wish to overcome being a victim to ‘anti-ataraxia.’

I was Attacked on Christmas!

Yes, the martial arts killed Christmas. In fact, it was me, with my martial arts that killed Christmas. Killed it dead. Dead a poisoned rat in a trap dropped in a well. Here’s how it happened.

click on the cover!

Back in 1974, I had just gotten my Black Belt. I was in phenomenal shape, the martial arts had turned on all sorts of abilities for me. I had a sixth sense open up, I could feel when people were going to do things, I could sense things around me, I moved through the world a warrior unbound.

My wife and I lived in a small house in Redwood City. There was an upstairs and a downstairs. It was so compact that the bathroom was under the stairs.

One night I awoke, felt the need to relieve myself. Half asleep, stumbling through the dark, I descended the stairs. I turned through the living room and headed for the bathroom.

Suddenly, a shape rushed at me! It was dark, but I could feel the motion. I spun into a classical move, and chopped with perfect form. The intruder crashed against the wall. One chop, and he was down and out! Now that’s good martial arts, I thought, and I turned on the light.

The Christmas tree lay a ruin. Every ornament was flung from the tree, little bulbs lay in shards, scattered across the floor

The lights, needless to say, no longer worked.

The cheery, little angel that had topped the tree was smacked against the wall and lay in ruins.

Half asleep, I had snagged the Christmas tree cord with a foot, and pulled the ‘intruder’ down upon myself.

Still, I had defended myself rather adequately, don’t you think?

I remember a time in an Aikido class, when the instructor had talked about using the sixth sense to protect oneself, but not being so violent, that Grandma had to worry, when she walked up behind you and tapped you on the shoulder.

Well, I understood that one. And I understood that I had a lot more to go, a lot more to learn, past black belt.

Heck, getting a black belt is just the start. That’s like graduating from high school, and there’s all sorts of college ahead of you, advanced studies in rare fields.

A lot to look forward to.

Unfortunately, there are those that quit the martial arts after getting their black belt. They have nothing to look forward to. Or at least didn’t, until the Matrixing courses came out.

Now, even if it’s been a few years since you worked out, you can jump back in the game, study those rare fields of knowledge. Learn Shaolin, figure out this ‘chi’ business, study weapons.

And you can do it logically, without all the mystical bullstuff that infects most martial arts.

Well, up to you. It is Christmas (HanaKwanMass) however, so you might think about getting yourself a nice present. A present like a whole martial art. How about Shaolin?

What’s with All the Bowing Stuff in the Martial Arts?

The most polite man i have ever met was my instructor in the Kang Duk Won. He was also the best martial artist I ever saw, which leads to an interesting possibility:

Politeness goes hand in hand with competence.

Think about it, if you are polite, honestly polite, then you won’t be scared, you won’t have hidden demons driving you, the martial arts will have expunged you of all that. You will be honestly competent.

So practice politeness as well as seek competence.

Now, with that in mind, what is the purpose of bowing in the martial arts? Aside from my little diatribe on politeness, why should people keep bowing and bowing all the time?

On one level, it is a sign of respect. I respect the work you’ve done, the level you’ve reached. And under that is the implied question: will you teach me. And the teacher bows to show respect to those who have come seeking his instruction.

On another level, it is merely saying hi. hi to everybody in the school. Hi to everybody who contributed to the school, even if they are passed on, a simple greeting to your friends.

With those two viewpoints in mind, here are the times you would bow.

Bow when entering the school. Bow to senior classmates. Bow to junior classmates. Bow when stepping onto the mat. Bow to the instructor, especially when asking a question. Bow after receiving instruction. Bow at the beginning of class. Bow at the end of class. Bow before you engage in any drill, be it sparring, form, etc. Immediately disengage and bow if an injury has occurred as a result of something you’ve done.

AND, bow to a classmate outside of school, or, if not considered appropriate, give him/her some sign of greeting.

AND, whenever entering another school, always bow, show that you have studied the martial arts, and that you are aware of martial etiquette.

Sounds like a lot of bowing, yes? Well, it is, but let me offer an insight. I can’t imagine not bowing, I strive to bow the most, to set the best example of being polite. I am constantly running into students who are surprised when I bow to them. But, it encourages them to bow. And, it makes you feel good.

Imagine walking into a school gymnasium, or an auditorium, with 500 people present. Imagine yelling out… HI EVERYBODY! And having them all yell to you… HI, AL!

After near 50 years in the arts, that’s what it feels like to me when I bow.

And I like to think that maybe I’m as competent as I am polite. One can hope.

Here’s a link to the martial arts I have been studying for near 50 years. Take a look, and see if I’ve made any inroads, if the changes i have made from the classical have value.

Teaching Karate Again!

This is turning out to be the best summer ever! The reason is simple…I’m teaching again.

150 Kenpo Techniques matrixed ~ Click on the cover!

It feels so good, after the shoulder injury and surgery, to get back out on the mat. If you don’t recall, I fell off a skateboard and killed a ligament, and the whole shoulder went south.

BUT, doc said surgery would get me back to 99%, and he was right. He was really right, because he had no idea of the rigors of the martial arts.

What I did, when I decided the time was right, was go to a place in town, walk in, and ask if the guy needed help.

He said yes, and after a few classes of helping, I am sometimes being handed the class and told to have fun.

And, as all you guys know, there is NOTHING as fun as the martial arts.

Here’s the interesting stuff, the martial arts have totally changed since I learned them. I don’t consider all changes bad, but there are things I have to accept if I want to teach. And, there are things that have stayed the same, which leaves a huge door for me to introduce stuff that is so old it has been forgotten.

It is fascinating to pull out an old drill, hand it to the students, and watch their eyes bulge.

But, I have to present the drill differently than how it was handed to me.

When I was learning, the teacher gave you something and you were expected to do it. Didn’t matter if it hurt. I mean, so what if it hurt? You’re here to learn karate, so don’t waste time sniveling, just do the drill.

And we would do the drill with manic intention.

Now, when I teach those drills, I have to make them soft, and very, very gently lead the student to harder versions and real workability.

Currently, I am working on a series of drills to bring fighters in freestyle closer together, to cut down reaction time, and make sure that blocks work, and punches have the desired effect.

All without giving nary a bruise.

But, I can’t tell you, it is more fun than I have had since…since I don’t know. After being sidelined for a couple of years, limited to nothing but forms, the feel of working techniques on real bodies is absolutely and totally and utterly exhilarating.

So, I get letters sometimes, from people who can’t find workout partners.

I tell them: teach your wife, work with your brother, or cousin or nephew or whoever. Put up a flier at the local gym, or the Y, or just be seen working out in the park.

There are 7 billion people on this globe of dirt, all will turn their head to a car crash, many will become instantly fascinated by martial arts, and you are telling me you are alone. That nobody cares.

Don’t make me sigh.

Just get out there and do it.

And, as this newsletter indicates, you can always just walk into a school, ask if you can help out. You won’t make money, but you can do the martial arts, you can play with other people, and the information will trade back and forth like magic! That is a supreme blessing, on this planet or any other.

Defeating Distractions to Find the True Martial Art

Good afternoon! Special day tomorrow, I’ll tell you about it down the page, but before we get to it, remember this: the only way to celebrate this special day is to… work out!

Okay, hope your interest is piqued, but before we talk about that special day, let’s take a moment to talk about emotion.

Ultimately, you don’t want to have any emotion in your martial arts. You don’t want to cry, or feel fear, or anger, or any kind of emotion.

Emotion is a distraction. It gets in between the thought of what you are going to do, and the reality of what you do.

There is this thing called emotional content, Bruce Lee mentions it in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ but even that, ultimately, is a distraction.

To get to the pure state where you can read the mind of the attacker, see what he is going to do before he does it, and move with perfection, you must get rid of ALL emotion.

There is a problem, however. The problem is that nobody really knows what emotion is.

If you can stick with me through a couple of points I can help you understand, which is to say that I can help you understand something that nobody understands.

Here’s the dictionary definition for emotion: a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood, or relationships with others: she was attempting to control her emotions | his voice was low and shaky with emotion | fear had become his dominant emotion.

But that doesn’t tell you what emotion is. That is like saying electricity goes through wires, but there is no mention of where electricity came from, what a generator is, or how electricity ‘flows’ through a wire.

It is an inadequate definition.

Here are three more definitions: 1 she was good at hiding her emotions: feeling, sentiment; reaction, response. 2 overcome by emotion, she turned away: passion, strength of feeling, warmth of feeling. 3 responses based purely on emotion: instinct, intuition, gut feeling; sentiment, the heart.

Again, these don’t tell you where emotion comes from, what has generated it, and how it really works.

So, here we go, here is what emotion actually is.

Emotion stems from motion inside the head.

And here is a truth, there are only people in this universe. Everything else in the universe, all the objects and non-living things (or ‘low living’ like animals) are the effect of motion in the universe.

A bug sits on a stalk, a frog sees the swaying stalk and must flick his tongue. A coyote sees the motion of the tongue, and is compelled to eat the frog.

The universe happens like dominoes. And, the ONLY thing in the universe that can upset the dominoes, can change the path of the falling dominoes, can change cause and effect, is a human being.

A human being has choice, and that ability, that decision making ability, is apart from the universe, and can cause the path of the universe to change and change and change.

So a human being can change the universe, but how does he change it? by having a thought first. So he thinks, and does what he thought about, and what he thought about comes to be.

But, in between the thought and the accomplishment, is emotion. Think about it:

A man wants to accomplish something, he sets out on the task, then he gets angry, or fearful, or otherwise emotional, and his ability to make accomplishment is lessened.

He was distracted.

Which brings us to the crux of the matter, why does man create these (his own) distractions? Why does he create emotion and waylay himself? Why?

What happens when you squeeze an lemon? Juice squirts out. Gets in your eye and you cry.

So a man creates emotion when he is squeezed, like a lemon, and ‘things’ squirt out.

things like fear, anger, hate, and so on.

And these things disrupt the mind, cause distraction, and obscure the basic thoughts that one may have.

When I was a child I was spanked, which is to say I was squeezed. I experienced fear, and pain, and anger, and that stuff, because I didn’t know what it is, it stayed with me for a long time.

It would even be fair to say that, like dominoes, certain of those emotions caused me to study martial arts. How weird.

So when you feel pain and anger and all those unpleasant things just say ‘no’ to them. Just refuse them. Refuse to dwell on that emotion, refuse to have motion inside your head, refuse to feel the lingering effects of being squashed (squeezed), and go about your life. Refuse the distraction and accomplish your thoughts.

Of course, it is not always easy to do that. Sometimes what is big in your head is greater than your ability to ignore.

That is where the martial arts come in.

The martial arts train you to accomplish an attack, no matter the distraction, and the heck with emotion.

No other practice on earth does this more efficiently or to greater effect.

You face your partner on the mat. He growls, people yell, you are tired, but because you have endured training, and pain and other distractions, and gotten to your black belt, you are able to ignore the distractions, move forward, and accomplish the thought of the strike, or the lock, or the takedown, or whatever.

You simply train yourself to ignore the motion inside your head, to ignore anything in the universe that tries to stop you, and you accomplish your thought.

Here’s a cruel trap, people who start the martial arts, then quit, were distracted. They let something squeeze them, and they quit. And the cruelty is that if they had kept going they would have found the ability that would have enabled them to ignore distractions, and accomplish their thoughts.

Catch 22. Yes?

One last thing I want to say about this. There are many people who fail, and, there are many people who are studying something thinking it is a martial art, when it isn’t.

You have to study the true martial arts. You have to find forms that work, and you have to make them work. You have to cleanse your techniques so they become pure and can show the thought that created them.

That path creates the discipline.

Just fighting does not. Fighting teaches you to fight. Doing the real martial arts, practicing techniques until you can make them work, that is the discipline of ignoring distractions and getting yourself to the point where you can make your thoughts work.

The best method, because incorrect movements (which are distractions) have been removed, is Matrix Karate.

Okay, that special day I was talking about. For me it is the most important day in the universe, for it is when I decided to have physical presence on this planet. Birthday.

And, if you have been following this blog for the last couple of decades, then you know I always ask for one, specific present.

Forgive me. If I have sent out the wrong order, didn’t answer an email, didn’t answer an email quickly said the wrong thing, didn’t understand something, failed in some way, if i have done ANYTHING that might have offended you, or caused you ANY sort of distraction…

Forgive me.

Help me clean up my universe, help me not have the distractions of bad service, poor communications, or ANYTHING else.

How Karate Blocks Make You Better

May you have the best work out of your life. Really.

Cover of volume 1 of Kindle version of Matrix Karate ~ click on cover to find out more

Speaking of blocks… When I was in my teens I was studying Kenpo. I learned all these neat tricks, was excited about fighting, and I kept having these weird ideas about strategy and how the martial arts were shaped. Oddly, I couldn’t make these strategies work. I could fight well, but these things I was thinking about, they just eluded me in combat. And it was because there wasn’t much in the way of blocking, in Kenpo.

In my twenties I joined the Kang Duk Won, I bashed my arms for years, and I learned about pain. I learned that pain is a warning device. And it was all because of blocks.

Funny. Most people won’t use a real block in freestyle. I can, and do if I am teaching somebody and there is a lesson in it. But it’s easier to just hit the other fellow than it is to block.

But I never would have learned how to slide in and hit somebody if I hadn’t learned how to block.

I always remember the specific technique where it all came home. It was the technique from the first move of Batsai. Batsai is spelled a few different ways, but it means ‘defending a fortress.’

In that technique I had to do three blocks. And I had to do these three blocks with hips twists, I had to twist the hips to align the body so it could support the impact without collapsing. And I had to do it faster than somebody could throw three punches at me.

For months I tried to get that technique. I would practice it and practice it, get guys to give me that attack, but I just couldn’t move my body fast enough.

One day, I did. Just like that. One second I couldn’t, and the next second I could. Like a switch had been thrown. But here’s the interesting thing: I felt like I was behind my head. I felt like I was out of my body, just a little bit, and watching my body move without me.

Well, it was moving because I had mastered the thought pattern behind the blocks. I had practiced that mental circuit until it broke, and what was left was me.

From there I moved into other things, hitting without blocks because, darn it, I had gotten so good at them I didn’t need them. And I moved into concepts of how to move the energy in my body just by thinking about it. Which is understandable if you realize that learning how to block had taught me how to influence my body with just thought.

I began to be able to accomplish all those odd ideas I had had way back in Kenpo. Which led to Matrixing.

Nowadays people don’t practice the blocks. And if they do, they don’t practice them with the proper hip movement, the proper alignment, the proper breathing and thought.

I know this because when people come to me for lessons, they show a complete lack of understanding, no knowledge of the drills, of how blocking works.

The thing is there is a whole realm of thought that goes with learning how to block. You learn all sorts of things, and it builds a springboard for moving into other concepts.

Think about it, you can box, and learn how to take a punch, but that doesn’t teach you how to run energy through your body.

Nothing wrong with boxing, it’s actually pretty good stuff, fills in a few gaps that are in the martial arts, but it just doesn’t have the energy theory that goes along with the martial arts.

Anyway, I’m working on the Matrix Karate for a Kindle version. Kindle is very unfriendly to photos, so I have to take some out, and rewrite the thing. It’s be good, but not as good as a book, or a video. Heck, even the other electronic readers are better, because they take PDFs easily.

But one of the things I focus on to make up for that lack, is the specific blocking in the forms. Not the matrix of blocking, which provides a logic which blasts one to intuition, but the old way, learning the blocks, making them work, until the art does you, and you become the art.

You guys are lucky. You understand something the Kindle readers may never understand. You get everything on these courses. On the other hand, the kindle readers may understand something you don’t because they will be seeing the art in a more bare bones viewpoint, that will let their mind fill in the blanks, which is very healthy for a student. Well, who’s to say. The real lesson is in the work out. Getting the material and doing it, thousands and thousands and thousands of times, until it becomes you, and you become it. That will teach you the art, no matter which of my books or courses you get.